Immersed vs Non-Immersed Breath Holding

[Stephen Morgan]

Hi there

I've been looking into the diving reflexes of late and how they are relevant to us as free divers and in cases of drowning. I'm giving a presentation on the subject soon.

As a gauge as to how powerful the reflexes are in terms of our breath holding ability, I wondered if people wouldn't mind sharing how long they can hold their breath underwater and how this differs to their maximum out of water breath hold? Since the reflexes are stimulated upon facial immersion, I'd expect the underwater holds to be longer.

Obviously the temperature of the water, amongst other things, may also make a difference to the strength of the diving reflex gained by immersion but I thought a comparison like this would show how beneficial it is for our breath hold (if at all!).

Thanks a lot in advance!

Stephen

 

[MarcinB]

My PB dry is 5:40 but I did it without much effort so I think I could do 6min if I were more motivated like during competition. My PB in water is only 5:18 and it was incredibly hard. Few month ago during competition I had a BO after ~5:20 so it seems it's really my maximal static.
In theory wet static should be longer, however, water temperature in the pool is usually around 30C which is too warm to stimulate facial cold receptors and augment the divie response. In addition, it to a large extent depends on what you are used to, dry or wet static. In my case it's almost exclusively dry. In water I'm not able to relax properly. If I do dry static contractions start ~3min. whereas in water it's 2min. or even less. Warm up and breath up is exactly the same in both cases.

 

[Bill]

For me there is little difference. PB is just over 8 either way. I seem to relax better in the water and require a little less warm up. I have to be careful about temperature (chilling down and shivering in the water or getting uncomfortably hot dry).

 

[jschultzdanmark]

My dry PB is 5:20, wet is 4:25. I can not seem to relax in water and find it extremely stressfull. Almost all my STA training is on land.

 

[growingupninja]

I am not sure what my max dry breathold is, but I did 6:44 at my last comp. At that time I was doing some middling regular static tables up to 5:00 min. That was actually the first and still only time I had done a max wet static, although I wore a dive mask so I think it was physiologically similar to a dry static except I was more relaxed since I was floating.

I think you will find that pool water is not cold enough to trigger dive response in people unless it is flowing across the face. I could never figure out why I did not experience dive response with facial immersion tests of pool temp water, yet I have a very solid and quick response (confirmed by a pulse oxy meter) when actually doing DYN in a pool. Sebastian Murat told me that it's the flowing water that does it. Makes sense, and I assume that he has done more exhaustive testing. I don't experience dive response from facial immersion alone unless the water is in the 60's F, and it gets stronger for me up until the water is low 50's, at which point colder water doesn't seem to enhance it.

 

[ShallowGuy]

For me it was around 5:15 in water. My dry static is around 7 minutes but I take into consideration that some "cheating" could be involved (like involuntary breath-in).

I did my wet static only once quite a long time ago. The funny thing is that the week before this mini-comp attempt i couldn't achieve 4 minutes dry and went to mini-comp prepared to stop just after 4 minutes. To my surprise I didn't even get contractions for the first 4 minutes and quite comfortably did my 5:15 (or so) which was one minute best than my dry statics that week.

I can say I enjoyed my wet attempt much more. I felt all muscles where relaxed. I had less air in my lungs as I took last breath in an upright position. It seems relaxation made huge difference.